Published: Thursday, 25th June, 2009 9:00am

O"Rourke shuffles the pack ahead of Wicklow game

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Fermanagh will travel to Aughrim to face Wicklow in Round One of the qualifiers on Saturday July 4 (7pm) following Sunday night"s draw.

While the bigger teams in the draw were avoided, an away game is always a tricky one to overcome and Fermanagh manager Malachy O"Rourke is only too aware that unless his side show a massive improvement on their display against Cavan then their season will be brought to an end against Mick O"Dwyer"s Wicklow outfit.

This is a game that Fermanagh cannot afford to underestimate the challeng with Wicklow having beaten Longford before narrowly losing to Westmeath in the championship.

'It"s a tough draw,' stated O"Rourke. 'The first thing that everyone would have wanted was a home draw which we didn"t get so we"ll expect it to be tough in Aughrim. They"ve played two games like ourselves and beat Longford before losing to Westmeath but Mick O"Dwyer will have them ready for this game and it is going to be a big challenge although it is one we are looking forward to.'

O"Rourke though believes that if his side can perform well then this is a game that they can win.

'The bottom line is that no matter what draw we got it depends on how we play. We have played some of the top teams in the country over the past couple of years and beaten them but we didn"t reach the level of performance we hoped for against Cavan in our last game. We"ll be working on getting our performance right and if we do that then we feel we have a good chance against anybody,' commented O"Rourke.

The squad returned to training last Thursday night with the key factor now for everybody concerned to put the defeat to Cavan behind them and focus now on the qualifiers, and specifically the clash with Wicklow.

'We had a good meeting last Thursday night and as we have said all along, whatever victories we have we win them together and if we lose then we also lose together. The Ulster championship is unfortunately over for us now but we have to just take it on the chin and look to move on,' he added.

O"Rourke has been hit with three withdrawals from the squad with the much publicised return of Mark Murphy to Australia as well as Ciaran O"Reilly and then Paul Johnston pulling out. However, the management have taken the opportunity to freshen things up by calling in three new faces to the squad ahead of the qualifiers.

Roslea"s Seamus Quigley, Niall McGovern from Belcoo and St. Pat"s midfielder Paul Cosgrove have all been added to the panel this week with the manager keen to run the eye over them.

'We"ve called up the three boys to give us the chance to have a look at them. At this stage we want to judge their attitude and commitment to play at this level,' he said.

Quigley has produced some high scoring displays for Roslea this season, and his call up was anticipated with scoring forwards still the main requirement for Fermanagh. However, the other two were maybe not as obvious. Cosgrove has only returned from Australia and has not featured for the Donagh men yet this season although the rangy midfielder was a key component of the St. Pat"s team that clinched a first ever senior championship title last season and O"Rourke was keen to have a look at him at the start of the campaign before he opted to travel to Australia. Niall McGovern has performed solidly this year, featuring at full back for Queens and Fermanagh U21"s while also playing an important part for Belcoo who sit joint top of the Division One table.

It would seem from these selections that O"Rourke has opted for youth, the three players would all have been available to play U21s this year, over experience with Enniskillen"s Tom Brewster not believed to have been asked to return to the squad despite playing his best football in a couple of years for his club at present.